Optimization in stochastic nano-systems
With the miniaturization of technical devices several new and exciting challenges for statistical mechanics arise. The thermodynamic properties of nanoscopic machines, heat pumps and motors are profoundly different from those of their macroscopic counterparts. The strong and ubiquitous influence of thermal fluctuations at the microscopic level both poses new problems and opens new possibilities. In the last five years there has been substantial progress in the understanding of the promises and general limits of nano-devices from the point of view of statistical mechanics. Important prerequisites for these developments were the discovery of work and fluctuation theorems for general non-equilibrium processes in the 1990s and the establishment of stochastic thermodynamics as the theory governing energy conversion at the nanoscale.
A central theme of recent research activity is the optimization of efficiency and performance of nano-systems like single molecule machines and tiny refrigerators. On the one hand these investigations were stimulated by significant progress in the experimental techniques. On the other hand it has turned out that many of these questions of direct practical relevance are intimately connected with problems at the very foundations of statistical mechanics like the feasibility of Maxwell's demon, the rectification of thermal fluctuations and the minimal amount of dissipation in information processing.
The workshop will bring together experts in the statistical mechanics of fluctuating non-equilibrium systems and young scientist (students and PhD-students) to discuss recent progress and future prospects in this exciting research field. It is is supported by the ESF under the research networking program “Exploring the Physics of Small Devices” and by the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (HWK).
List of Invited Speakers
- Valentin Blickle (University of Stuttgart, Germany)
- Dieter Braun (LMU Munich, Germany)
- Sergio Ciliberto (LPENS Lyon, France)
- Massimiliano Esposito (Free University of Brussels, Belgium)
- Stephan Grill (MPI Dresden, Germany)
- Pierre Gaspard (Free University of Brussels, Belgium)
- Christopher Jarzynski (University of Maryland, USA)
- Ryoichi Kawai (University of Alabama, USA)
- Heiner Linke (Lund University, Sweden)
- Theodorus Nieuwenhuizen (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
- Juan Manuel Parrondo (University of Madrid, Spain)
- Peter Reimann (University Bielefeld, Germany)
- Riccardo Rurali (University of Barcelona, Spain)
- Udo Seifert (University of Stuttgart, Germany)
- Christian Van den Broeck (University of Hasselt, Belgium)
Programme
Sunday, October 10
Arrival, gathering of participants in the hotel
Monday, October 11
09:15 – 09:45 Welcome
09:45 – 10:45 Udo Seifert: Optimization in stochastic thermodynamics
10:45 – 11:15 coffee break
11:15 – 12:00 Sergio Ciliberto: Fluctuation-dissipation in out-of-equilibrium systems
12:00 – 12:45 Pierre Gaspard: From loose to tight coupling between fluctuating
transport processes
13:00 – 14:00 lunch
14:00 – 15:30 posters and discussion
15:30 – 16:00 coffee break
16:00 – 16:45 Valentin Blickle: Colloidal particles as probes for stochastic
thermodynamics
16:45 – 17:30 Christian Van den Broeck: The three faces of the second law in
stochastic thermodynamics
Tuesday, October 12
09:00 – 10:00 Dieter Braun: Biomolecules in temperature gradients: From biotechnology
to Darwinian evolution
10:00 – 10:45 Stephan Grill: Active forces and flows that drive cellular polarization
10:45 – 11:15 coffee break
11:15 – 12:00 Heiner Linke: Optimizing the design of a synthetic protein motor
12:00 – 12:45 Riccardo Rurali: Thermal nanomotor based on carbon nanotubes
13:00 – 14:00 lunch
14:00 – 15:30 posters and discussion
15:30 – 16:00 coffee break
16:00 – 16:45 Theo Nieuwenhuizen: Brownian entanglement: Entanglement in
classical Brownian motion
16:45 – 17:30 Peter Reimann: Equilibration and thermalization under experimentally
realistic conditions
19:00 conference dinner
Wednesday, October 13
09:00 – 10:00 Christopher Jarzynski: Guiding the motion of artificial molecular
machines
10:00 – 10:45 Juan Manuel Parrondo: Cooling classical particles with a microcanonical
Szilard engine
10:45 – 11:15 coffee break
11:15 – 12:00 Ryoichi Kawai: Efficiency at maximum power in weak dissipation regimes
12:00 – 12:45 Massimiliano Esposito: Optimization of efficiency, Onsager
symmetry, and the fluctuation theorem
13:00 – 14:00 lunch
Departure
Poster board size:
width: 1,18 m
height: 1,40 m